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Golden Globes: Claire Danes won't quit her day job

January 15, 2012 | 8:08
pm

Claire Danes said she belongs on Showtime's critically acclaimed series "Homeland," not actually on the homeland security team.

“We should all be very grateful that I'm not in charge of homeland security,” said Danes backstage after accepting the award for best actress in a TV drama for her role as a CIA agent. “We would not be very secure.”

The Showtime series has been among the premium network's most celebrated new series and centers on Danes' brilliant but troubled government agent as she pursues a returning POW (Damian Lewis) she suspects of being a terrorist. She admitted to being deeply affected by the part.

"As an American, when I started learning about the CIA and the people within that world, I was really struck by their patriotism," said Danes. "It’s something I’ve taken for granted. I have learned through this story that it is something to take more seriously.”

Danes researched the role in a variety of ways -- reading books, interviewing psychologists and even watching YouTube videos. (In addition to her job as a government agent, her character also has bipolar disorder.)

YouTube "is a really valuable resource,” she said. “There’s a lot of material. Bipolar people who are up in the middle of the night … they talk to their camera, and they post it. I think I did more of that. I just gorged on their videos.”